


Unswerving

by Apricot



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/M, Friendship, Mission 9 feels, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-19
Updated: 2013-03-19
Packaged: 2017-12-05 19:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/726943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apricot/pseuds/Apricot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Apocalypse aside, it's nice to have things you can depend on.  A missing scene set after Mission 9: A Voice in the Dark.</p><p>(A companion to my earlier fic Touchstone, but it's unnecessary to read that one first.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unswerving

There are times Sam manages to forget that he is living in the apocalypse.

Sure, the constant threat of zoms is always there, but in the day to day it has become almost…normal. The ebb and flow of the missions have gotten easy: watch for hordes, make sure not to direct anyone right into the path of the undead, the comm tools are _temperamental_ and banging a mike against the desk is not an appropriate response to a static feed, _Mister Yao._  

Most importantly? Try not get too attached.

He doesn’t quite have a handle on the last part.  Five goes offline running back from a New Canton set-up, God knows if she’s injured or dead or _undead,_ and suddenly he’s remembering that this is the end of everything. Sam tries to remain unattached, he really tries, but there are only about 150 people in Abel and that makes it hard _not_ to know his runners. Five's a good runner, even from the start. Doesn't get into too much trouble, managed a good and healthy ratio of supplies to runs and most importantly, didn’t get herself zombiefied. He’s watched her from the scanners, and during the rare times he’s been out of the comm and near the gates when she’s come in he’s been struck by the way she runs, her hair flying behind her, and the look on her face when she passed the gates.

Sometimes, she even smiles at him, and he raises a hand in greeting. That's been the highlight of their terse conversations. She doesn’t often talk to him, and if he has purposefully (and shamefully) sat a bit farther away from her than he might normally have done, well, it’s for both of their sake. The number five isn’t the luckiest of numbers for him.

He doesn’t know if he’s even spoken ten words to her outside of the missions. The comm is just him directing, and occasionally speaking rhetorically, because Five makes Runner Eight seem _chatty_. But she’s good at what she does, and the way she flies past the gates is reliable. It’s normal. And Sam needs a little normal. So even if there are no safe bets in an apocalypse, and they are the last hope of humanity (no pressure or anything) he never really thought she _wasn’t_ going to come back.

Five isn’t even his favorite runner _._ He hasn’t known her as long as Eight, and she’s not nearly as talkative as Jodie, but maybe it’s the thought of losing another Five- maybe it’s memories of Alice- but when he sees her on the scans it’s all he can do but fly out of the comm center after he finishes crowing.

His headset is still dangling around his neck, and there is a stitch in his chest because he’s just raced from the comm center. (Sam Yao knows  _he_ is not a graceful runner.)

There is a crowd of curious people gathering, and the gates are screeching metal as they swing shut. Five is surrounded- Maxine is pushing away at the onlookers to get her medkit out, and Janine has planted herself nearby, looking irritated to have been woken up so late. Five’s hands are on her knees, and she's taking slow, dragging breaths, and he can hardly see her for the crowd.

There's a bedraggled, half-empty sack of supplies off to the side. Despite himself, Sam's impressed. Zombies out in the middle of the night, and Five still managed to find some things worth bringing home.

“Mister Yao, you should go to bed,” Janine said, turning on him as he nears. “As should the rest of you!” she said to the rest of crowd. They looked slightly abashed, dispersing, slowly heading back toward the residential area.   
  
Five’s head had jerked up  at Janine’s words, and Sam was about to turn to go until the look on Five’s face killed the impulse entirely. He was suddenly aware of everything he said on the comm, every single awful thing.

The look on Five’s face says without a doubt that the comm., on her end, was working perfectly fine.

So he took a step forward, feeling exposed- not like he wasn’t glad she was alive, because he was, he really really was, but he had been half convinced that he had been talking into the ear of a zombie and now she was definitely un-grey and breathing. Five was still  _looking_ at him, and he was suddenly aware he’s never seen her look so afraid before, so strained.   
  
“Guess you _aren’t_ going to join the Flesh Eating Corpse Club this time, Five,” he tried weakly. Five’s face shuttered like the metal gate behind her, and Janine prodded his chest with a finger.  
  
“We’re all grateful to your service, Mister Yao,” she snapped. “Now the doctor has to examine Runner Five to make sure she’s fine. Good night.”

He had been dismissed. He looked at Five again, but Five was back to staring at the ground, a fine tremble in her legs as she slowly sank to the ground, and with his hesitation, Janine had begun frog-marching him toward the living quarters.

“I just wanted to see-” he protested.  
  
“She needs to be debriefed,” Janine said. “Talk to her tomorrow.”  
  
Sam swiveled around, frowning. “You mean about that crazy mission _you_ put her on-“  
  
“That’s enough, Mister Yao,” Janine said sharply. “I suggest you go to bed. You did fine work. Now let the doctor take a look at her.”  
  
The compliment from Janine is stunning enough, but she has already pushed him into the dorm and closed the door behind him.

 

* * *

 

 Someone is tapping him in the chest, hard, and he nearly shouted when that someone’s hand slapped down on his mouth instead.  
  
“Sam.”  
  
It’s Five. He struggled to sit up, and she shifted a little- Five was _sitting_ on the edge of his cot and he clutched his sheet up a bit higher, before checking himself. _She isn’t here to steal your maidenly virtue, Yao, be cool._

 She took her hand away and he sucked a breath, wiping his eyes. It must have been late, because the light coming out of the windows was very faint.

“Relax,” she said, watching him. “Maxine checked me out. Zom-free."

“Five, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” he managed to croak. “A man could die of shock, you know. It’s not unheard of.”  
  
Five was watching him, and it’s too dark to see the expression on her face, but he can imagine it’s not unlike how he last left her, judging by the strained note in her tone. She was quiet for a long moment, and Sam shifted uncomfortably. “Er- Five…”  
  
“Thank you.”  
  
He didn’t have to ask why she’s thanking him, but he was uncomfortable, because, well, Five is  _Five_. He forced a grin, sitting back up, and that makes the light a bit clearer and also puts another inch of distance between the two of them, which helps.  
  
“Hey, don’t mention it,” he said, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. Five was staring at him again, and making no effort to move. Jack and Eugene were absolutely no help at all, being asleep, but thankfully they _were_ asleep and therefore less likely to torture him about this later provided they could be kept unconscious.

“I was going to die out there,” she said quietly. “I would be dead right now if you hadn’t kept the gates open.”

  
“Er,” he said, shifting a little. “Are- you okay, Five?”  
  
“I’m fine,” she said, and that strained note has been erased, and she almost sounded like the Major. He didn’t know what it was about women and the Apocalypse, but between Five and Eight and Janine…

“I’m glad you’re alive and everything, Five, but if Jack and Eugene wake up we will never hear the end of this-“  
  
Five glanced over her shoulder, to Jack and Eugene’s tumble of limbs in the corner, and then gave him a faint smile that failed. “My adrenaline’s too high to sleep. Running through the dark without your operator will do that to you.”

“I was still there,” Sam said, rubbing his eyes. “Listen, Five, about everything I said-“  
  
“You were fine.: She glanced away. “What exactly did Janine do to you for asking about ice-cream rolls in the middle of the night?”

“Threatened to toss me over the gate if it ever happened again,” he said. “But I doubt her ability to lift me over her head.”  
  
That pulled a reluctant, but genuine smile from her. “Don’t ever doubt Janine. I’m sure she’d construct a rudimentary forklift if she needed to.”  
  
“Or a catapult.”  
  
Five laughed, covering her mouth to soften the sound before she glanced at him again, stilling.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” she said. “Thanks for not giving up.”  
  
“Any time,” he said, watching and feeling a bit odd about her presence. “Don’t do it again, okay, Five?”  
  
She flashed him another smile, and this time Sam felt it, and was suddenly very grateful for the darkness because he might be blushing like a middle-school girl. There was a sudden awkward second, and he opened his mouth, before she cut him off.

“There isn’t anyone out there for me anymore." Five crossed her arms awkwardly. Sam tried and failed to process that, his brain is still swimming a little after her smile.  
  
“My family, I mean,” she said, exhaling before giving him a fixed stare. “Or friends. Even at Mullins…”  
  
“It’s okay, Five,” he managed. “You-“  
  
“You told me,” she said. “About your parents…and your sister. I try not to think about my life before.”

Sam can’t say much to that, and Five waited another beat before she slid off the bed. “I should let you sleep.”  
  
“I didn’t mean what I said,” Sam said quickly, definitely flushing now. “About the zombies…being the lucky ones. I much prefer being alive and, well, breathing.”

Five hesitated, before the corner of her mouth crept up and she nodded. “Good. I much prefer you alive and breathing.”

“Tell that to Janine,” he said, smiling.

“Janine likes you,” she said. “I think she outright complimented you tonight.”  
  
“Did she?”   
  
Five shifted, and if he didn’t know better he would say she was hiding a smile. “Well, she did say something about ‘no one else would have been stubborn enough to stay up half the night-‘”

Sam sat back.  
  
“For which, have I mentioned, you have my eternal gratitude."

“Yes, well,” he said. “For feats of stubborn mulishness and technological shenanigans, look no further than Sam Yao-“  
  
“Try and stay that way,” she said. “Alive and breathing. As well as stubborn, for all the runners’ sakes. And if Janine starts building a catapult, you can send her to me.”  
  
That provoked a highly entertaining fantasy of Janine and Five in a fight, and he resolved to explore _that_ later. “Thanks.”

She must have smiled again, but he couldn’t fully see it this time as she stepped back into the shadow. “Good night.”

Eugene and Jack were still snoring, and Sam finally relaxed as she cleared the door, his thoughts roiling.

“And Sam,’ Five said, poking her head back in, nearly in darkness. “We are friends. Well, we are now, definitely.”  
  
“Oh, good,” he said faintly.  
  
That must have been enough for Five, because after another second the door slid shut, which left him to fall back down onto his mattress, staring at the ceiling, overwhelmed and warmer, than before. _Friends_ sounded good. Normal. Zombies didn’t have friends, after all. Getting attached, well, that was a human trait. And it wasn’t so bad, building the future and everything.

Well, it was bloody awful, but better than the alternative. Better than being undead.

Better than being catapulted over the wall.  
  
He snorted, and dragged his pillow over his face to muffle the sound.

 

 

 


End file.
